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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23204434">The Empty Blood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2'>for_t2</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Tragedy, Being Lost, Dark Fantasy, Death, Demon Deals, F/F, Fear, Hope vs. Despair, Horror, Original Universe, Shadow Realm, Temptation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:26:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23204434</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Beware the demons that find you in the endless dark</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Female Character/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Empty Blood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sometimes, Erin wasn’t sure if the tiny pinprick of light in the distance was still real.</p>
<p>As the hunger in her stomach dulled to an ache, as the throb of thirst in her throat flattened to a faint, yet always present, soreness, as the hazy darkness that stretched on around her in every direction in an infinite horizon slowly seeped through her eyes, sometimes she wasn’t even sure if she was real anymore.</p>
<p>Or maybe it was this world around her that wasn’t real. She could barely remember how she ended up here, how she slipped through a crack between worlds, and the rare glimpses of others in the distance, all trudging slowly towards the pinprick across the vast darkness, could just as easily be hallucinations. Sometimes, somewhere in the above (it could hardly be called a sky), the faintest cacophony of urgent whispers and cries pushed down.</p>
<p>She had probably screamed when she fell down to this world. It if even was real. If it even was a world. It seemed like the type of thing you’d do. Of course, she didn’t scream anymore. There wasn’t any point – if anyone heard her, all they could do would be to scream back.</p>
<p>Sometimes, when her thoughts drifted off in some vaguely coherent stream, she toyed with the idea that maybe the cries were her. Maybe she wasn’t just walking through space, but through time as well (she thinks she used to be a scientist) , and all the sounds she heard, all the glimpses she saw, were just her at different points, all caught here, in… </p>
<p>One thing she knew for certain, one thing she thought she knew for certain was that this world, whatever, wherever it was, wasn’t hell. That there wasn’t a hell. Any hell couldn’t be worse than this (even she had trouble remembering what a better used to look like), and if hell existed, it existed for a reason – it had to have a point. This darkness just existed, constant and unchanging. It didn’t have a point.</p>
<p>All it had was that one, small pinprick of light.</p>
<p>She doesn’t remember how long ago it was when she first saw it, but she it must’ve been about the same time she first fell down, and she thinks she must’ve started walking towards it almost immediately. It was somewhere to go, and eve now, even when it hasn’t ever changed sizes, hasn’t ever gotten brighter or clearer, she still walked towards it. It was still somewhere to go. Walking seemed better than staying still, and, well, it was a direction. It was--   </p>
<p>“You need help.” The voice cut so clearly through the darkness, so close to her ear, that Erin jumped. “Don’t you?”</p>
<p>“I…” She shivered at the proximity of contact, at the presence of another body in the space around her that she could only remember being empty. And when her heartbeat slowed, when the flow of blood through her veins calmed down to normal, she focused on the voice. On the way she wanted to lean back into it, deep and soft. On the way it resonated through her. And… </p>
<p>“Everyone wants to find the way out.” And her. The speaker. Just a little bit taller than Erin, sharp eyes shining grey, and a… a presence, an aura, that seemed to mix seamlessly with the dark, that felt like it could wrap around Erin, that it could hold her just perfectly. </p>
<p>“A…” It had been a long time since Erin had spoken to anyone. “There’s a way out?”</p>
<p>“There’s always a way out.”</p>
<p>“Where?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know.” There was something about the way she smiled. “Are you sure you’re ready?” Something that just drew Erin towards her.</p>
<p>“Where?”</p>
<p>Or maybe it was the speaker shifting closer. “There’s a price.”</p>
<p>Or maybe it was the world shrinking around them, the shadows getting darker, the above writhing faster and faster, the cacophony getting harsher, from sound to prickling wind. It was enough to make Erin glance away, enough to make her slip away from the speaker’s presence. “Just get me out of here. Now.”</p>
<p>Only the darkness answered her.</p>
<p>“Please.”</p>
<p>Only the pinprick of light, far off in the endless distance.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Erin didn’t forget about her. Couldn’t forget. In the darkness, in the emptiness, there was nothing else to remember.</p>
<p>And Erin searched for her. Looked for every she could possibly make out through the shadows, every shift she could imagine was a shape, every shift she could imagine was a sound, every shift she imagined could be someone. Could be her. A way out.</p>
<p>Every time it wasn’t her, Erin just searched harder.</p>
<p>So when she finally found her, crouched over a shape, a body, the shiver that ran up Erin’s spine, that froze Erin’s tongue, just pushed her feet towards her.</p>
<p>“I heard you calling.” The speaker rose, letting the shadows roll back over the body. “You haven’t found your way out.”</p>
<p>“I…” Erin found herself tumbling through those grey eyes again, almost like a giddy freefall. “You’ve got something here.” She reached out a finger. Gently wiped a streak of something close to red off the edges of the speaker’s lips.</p>
<p>“Thank you.” The turmoil in the shadows kept louder, but this time, Erin wasn’t going to let her disappear. Not again. And the speaker didn’t seem in a rush to leave. “You must have a lot of questions.”</p>
<p>“I… Yes!” Yes, Erin did. But no answers. “Where are we? What is this place? Why are we here? Who…” No way to find answers.</p>
<p>“Shh.” For all it mixed with the incessance from the above, as much as the two amplified the dissonance, the speaker’s whisper stayed clear, a thread to hang on for dear life. “You want me to give you answers.”</p>
<p>“Yes!”</p>
<p>The way the speaker’s lips quirked slightly upwards wasn’t happy. Or sad. It just sent another shiver up Erin’s spine. A shiver that she couldn’t remember feeling anywhere else. “I can’t give you answers. Only a way out.”</p>
<p>“How?” It didn’t make sense. Or maybe it did, but it didn’t make sense to Erin. “How can you… You’ve got to know something.”</p>
<p>“If I could give you that much, do you think I’d still be here?”</p>
<p>“But you know a way out.”</p>
<p>The speaker sighed, and for a moment, Erin let herself by distracted by just how a pretty a sigh it was. “There was a curse once.” She paused for a moment, tilting her head. “I think. It doesn’t really matter. In this place, nothing really matters. I don’t matter. You don’t matter. We’re just nothing in a sea of nothings.”</p>
<p>“But there’s a light.” A tiny light, that Erin could barely see, just over the horizon.</p>
<p>“That’s where we’re all heading.” The speaker seemed almost amused by it. “It’s a way out.”</p>
<p>“But you’re still here.”</p>
<p>“A curse, remember?” She was definitely amused, but this time, by Erin. “I can only bring others there. I’ve got this theory it’s where I came from.” And Erin didn’t like the way that amusement made her feel. “Wouldn’t you like to see it?”</p>
<p>“Just take me there!”</p>
<p>The speaker grinned. Reached out a hand that would’ve felt cold if Erin could remember what cold and hot felt like and slipped it just under the hem of Erin’s shirt, just lightly around her waist. Close enough for Erin to catch a glimpse of red stained beyond her lips. “You don’t control me.”</p>
<p>The world snapped.</p>
<p>It felt like the shadows suckerpunched her, leaving her gasping for air, kneeling on a ground that couldn’t be solid, her arms shaking in a way that couldn’t be real. The speaker, or whatever her name once was, was gone too, leaving Erin alone.</p>
<p>And the pinprick of light, so far away, seemed even more distant.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>“Hey there.”</p>
<p>Emma… No, Erin. That was her name. At least, that’s what she thought she remember. Erin almost feel right into the speaker’s arms when she saw her again, perched off to the side, on what could’ve been the wreck of some ship crashed down from another world.</p>
<p>“I hope you’ve been waiting for me.”</p>
<p>Erin had. Fuck, she had so much. It wasn’t just the possibility of being able to talk to someone else, it wasn’t just her increasing conviction that the speaker was the most beautiful person she had ever seen, it was the exhausted restlessness of her walk, it was the tantalizing brightness of the pinprick, which always seemed to increase just enough to get her to move twice as hard, but never seemed to change size. Every time her legs gave out, sitting just made her nerves twitch with fire, but every step she took seemed harder than the last, almost like she was pushing a boulder up an increasingly steep hill.</p>
<p>“I hope you’re ready.”</p>
<p>“You’re so beautiful.” Erin wasn’t sure what else there was to say. There were words and there were feelings, but there were no words for feelings, and she couldn’t remember how to feel for a word. “So beautiful.”</p>
<p>“Should I take that as a yes?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” Erin nodded. The speaker was everything the pinprick of light wasn’t. She was real. She was here. “We can go.”</p>
<p>“About time.” The speaker jumped down from her perch, and Erin couldn’t help but shiver at the feeling of her presence. Of how good it felt to be so close. “You don’t have to worry. You’re not my first.”</p>
<p>Maybe the shadows around and above were thrashing more wildly, more frantically than Erin could remember, but when she took the speaker’s hand, she only felt peace. “I don’t get it.” She only felt the tiniest little surge of what she thought could be hope. “Why would anyone curse you?”</p>
<p>“Guess I’m just too pretty to be free.” The speaker winked at her, gave her the gentlest smile. “Now close your eyes.”  </p>
<p>Erin nodded. “Thank you.”</p>
<p>The last thing Erin saw before she closed her eyes was the deep grey of the speaker’s. And as her eyes fluttered shut, she caught the slightest glimpse, for just a tiny fraction of a second, of blood-stained fangs and claws. For just a moment, before the pain tore through her, she felt something else.</p>
<p>For just a moment, she remembered fear.</p>
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